Down, Down, Down By the River: Let's Play Baldur's Gate 3

[Timrod]

Summary

: Welcome back to Baldur’s Gate 3! Today, we’ll finish off the goblin camp and clear out some loose ends in Act 1.

: Before we start anything, I forgot to post the finished version of Pollux’s wild shape form, as done by Salty Vanilla.

: The site ate my update after I had already gotten all the way through the goblin camp, the two areas post-goblin camp, Auntie Ethel, and the giant spider.

: I think what happened is the update was too long, so I’m going to condense it. We’re going to do the goblin camp and the next major optional fight afterward.

: Before we get to killing Dror Ragzlin, we should clear out Gut’s quarters. This is because the second Dror Ragzlin dies, the entire camp goes aggro.

: Gut’s bodyguard is in here. She’s not particularly difficult even if she does attack on sight, but the goal here is to not take damage.

: In this fight, I learned something I didn’t know, which is that thrown weapons are incredibly broken. See how the ogre is taking damage twice?

: If you throw a weapon at an enemy and there’s enough of a height difference, the weapon will “crush” anything it touches for extra damage that scales with height/distance.

: I don’t think this is meant to work this way, but as far as I know it still works that way on Patch 8. The crushing damage happens even if your attack misses, so long as the weapon physically touches the enemy.

: She dies, leaving us enough food for a long rest. By the end of the original update before the site ate it, we will have over 2700 camp supplies.

: To save on space, I’ll just say that there’s a few scrolls, some vendor trash, and one useful item in this area.

: This is useful for getting Astarion into position to sneak attack. I think I kept this on him almost the entire game on my first run.

: The cabinet next to the bed has a book that serves as a clue for an upcoming puzzle that is in this room, but that we won’t be doing just yet.

[Most of the pages in this aged journal have been hastily torn out, perhaps for kindling.]

Thus the interlocking circles will bring the full moons to match the stars, while casting darkness where it belongs at the bottom. That chasm to the Underdark will stay sealed.

I confess the design is not foolproof to outsiders, but I had to sacrifice complexity for material resilience. I’ve always wondered why Selune took me from the Hall of Wonders to serve at this temple as a priestess. Perhaps this was the reason.

: Dror Ragzlin’s room has him, six goblins, and two human cultists in it. This is probably the most difficult fight we’ve encountered thus far.

: There’s a cutscene that plays if you get close enough to Ragzlin. On the run where I kill him, we don’t watch it.

: “Shuugaan, a shuulkac. O taash okec dor.”

: “I command you, corpse: speak! Reveal truth to the Absolute!”

: “Nothing. Must be reading it wrong! Shuugaan, a shuulkac…”

Narrator: The hobgoblin turns to you, and the parasite squirms in your skull. You taste the ale on his tongue and the bile in his soul. The visions cloud your inner eye for a brief moment once again. You see the hobgoblin, bowing before the armoured elf you’d glimpsed before.

Narrator: The elf speaks of the hunt for a great weapon, and the rewards that will go to whoever finds it. The hobgoblin’s eyes gleam hungrily.

: “If it isn’t another True Soul.”

Narrator: He doesn’t speak his next words, yet they still rattle your skull from within.

: “You ever talk to a dead squid? Now’s your chance.”

1. Look at the corpse. Is this the mind flayer that tormented you on the nautiloid?

: This scene doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and I think was part of the beta plot and never cleaned up afterward.

: I was going to say, when did a mind flayer ever torment the party?

: “Absolute says the dead squiddie had a weapon. I reckon the killer nabbed it and scooted off to that looter camp. We find who killed it, and we find who took that weapon. So settle in."

Narrator: You feel Shadowheart’s anxiety. The weapon the Absolute seeks - it’s the artefact she carries. The same one that protected you as you entered the goblin camp. Her mind focuses - their suspicion cannot be aroused. They cannot discover that the weapon they seek is within their grasp.

1.Then let the ceremony proceed.
2.[BARD] I know this magic. Hand me the scroll and I can do the talking.
3.Attack the hobgoblin.
4.Leave, before the mind flayer can identify you.

: “Then let the ceremony proceed.”

: “Then take it. Absolute knows I’m not getting anywhere.”

Narrator: You read the scroll aloud. The hideous corpses rises, tentacles writhing.

: One of the reasons this scene makes no sense is because of how it works. Our goal here is to cast Speak with Dead and waste all the questions.

: If you walk away, or let Ragzlin continue, he’ll eventually cast the spell and ask the mind flayer who killed it. The mind flayer will point out the party even though that doesn’t make sense.

1. Who killed you?
2. Who is the Absolute?
3. What were you doing in Faerun?
4. What was your killer after?
5. Attack the hobgoblin.

: Any option other than the second one is safe. That’d be like walking through Hell and asking someone who Lucifer is.

: “What were you doing in Faerun?”

Narrator: Ragzlin scowls, shocked by a question you shouldn’t have asked, and a jolt shoots through you.

Narrator: The creature speaks in visions - a swarm of githyanki dragon-riders, silver blades held high. Control panels melting, flesh-pods spilled open.

: “I saw it, too. Gith on the hunt. They know something.”

1. Why were the gith chasing the ship?
2. Who killed you?
3. Attack the hobgoblin.

: “Why were the gith chasing the ship?”

Narrator: You see dark tunnels lit by noxious pools of brine. The darkness spreads through the earth. The sky splits open, and nautiloids pour out of a void that consumes the stars.

: “What in the…”

Narrator: Suspicion floods Ragzlin’s mind. Your brain howls as you consider your final question.

: This is the part that makes no sense. The only question we have left is “Who killed you?”

Narrator: Another vision consumes you. A memory, seen through the creature’s soul-dead eyes. You see a clawed hand open a holding pod - devoid of flesh, only darkness.

: For some reason, it won’t identify the party as its killer if the party asks. The weirder part is that the game’s general rule is that you can’t use Speak with Dead on a corpse you killed without using Disguise Self first.

: “Oh, c’mon!”

Narrator: The corpse collapses, silent once more.

: “No. No! We’re not done!”

Narrator: Irritation eclipses his suspicions and Ragzlin’s mind rests.

: “Riddles, all of it. And nothing to show for the trouble but rotting squid meat. No answers, no killer, and no damned weapon!”

: “Hmph. The damned drow was right. can’t let her get all the glory.”

: At this point, he’ll tell us to go see Minthara, who is currently.. indisposed. I’ll skip that bit.

: If you watch the cutscene, the red guy will go back to his throne to cry.

: That might’ve been just a bit overkill.

: A bit? For that many barrels you could’ve killed the entire room and then some.

: Not to mention roasted all those ground hams.

:It’s kinda lame, too. That’s the best you could do?

: That’s the best I can do without taking damage. We can still kick his ass even on tactician without anyone going down.

: Every overlord worth anything knows that you never build a bespoke arena to fight intruders in.

: Of course, because the heroes can recognize them from a mile away and lure the villains out. Works every time, unless it doesn’t.

: That’s exactly what Ragzlin’s room is. There are ladders all over pointing you to the rafters and inviting you to snipe him.

: There are even braziers you can shoot down to kill or seriously maim a few of the goblins… except this is a trap. Let’s take a look at Ragzlin’s moveset.

: His basic attacks can knock people off the rafters.

: He also has a spammable bonus action he can use to knock anyone in a 20-foot radius off the rafters while doing damage.

: Getting knocked off is almost certainly an instant kill. There’s no way to stop him climbing up, either - there are five ladders, and they’re hard-coded to be unblockable.

: The most efficient way to do this fight is by hiding Astarion behind this little piece of wall. None of the goblins can see past it, so Astarion can hide there and snipe them.

: If you’re lucky, you’ll break a couple of goblins off from the pack and can take them down separately.

: The better place to fight Ragzlin is in the main hall, which has rafters that don’t connect to each other. This makes it much harder for him to get attacks off.

: Ragzlin carries javelins and can attack twice a turn, so you’re not likely to get through him damageless.

: All we get is a generic +1 warhammer, which isn’t any better than Karlach’s sword.

: The real treasure is behind Ragzlin’s throne. You can easily get up here and as far as I know cannot be spotted if you do it before the cutscene.

: We get two of the really good explosive barrels, and..

: (That’s some treasure, alright.)

: Most of it’s kinda bad - the gloves give you advantage on attacks if you’re surrounded, and the infernal iron is good for Karlach.

: The boots, however, are useful for fighting Auntie Ethel in Honor Mode. Speaking of which, let’s talk about Ragzlin on Honor Mode.

: This is why people explode him on Honor Mode. If he’s hit, all of his buddies get a second action on their turn.

: On balanced and tactician, you can free Minthara’s spiders from under his room and they’ll attack him if all the other goblins are dead. On honor mode, he throws them at you.

: If you’ve already killed the goblin leaders before saving Halsin, his dialogue is slightly different.

: “Gladly, but first I must return to the grove. As you made short work of the goblins’ leaders, there’s nothing stopping me. Come join me in your own time.”

: “I can see to some matters there, and we can discuss what comes next amidst more.. bucolic surroundings than here.”

: (We’ll start with a first date, and then a second date, and then we’ll get married.)

: Talking to Halsin at the grove makes you long rest in order to progress the plot, so instead we’re going to clean up the rest of this part of Act 1.

: To get to those, we’re going to start back at the toll house.

: In front of the toll house is a bridge covered in dead gnolls. This area would have been brutally difficult if we had done it before the goblin camp.

: Going further down, we have a bunch of hyenas lying around. They’re alive. Let’s just take a look at them.

: These hyenas aren’t worth a tactics segment, mostly because they’re fanfiction. The 5E monster manual (2014 edition) has a page for gnolls.

: It mentions that the original gnolls were created by Yeenoghu, who is essentially a giant demon hyena. The writers for BG3 re-wrote them to be chestbursters from Aliens.

: I think the writers had furries confused with demons again.

: They’re a fascinating monster race. Both sexes have male genitalia, only the females have even bigger -

: I think we get the picture. I don’t want to get the picture.

: There are a couple of regular hyenas in with the bloated ones, and they’ll warn another group of enemies if we let them get away, so I use a grenade.

: Upon dying (or after a turn passes), the bloated hyenas explode into gnolls.

: All they can do is charge, and they die in pretty short order.

: If any of the hyenas get loose, they run up here and alert this group of gnolls. Gnolls in this game were nerfed significantly compared to 5E gnolls.

: In 5E, all gnolls can attack three times a round. BG3’s gnolls need to charge for a round before they unlock the ability to do it.

: By the way, this area is where we’d have ended up if we had taken that bridge near the goblin village where we briefly met Raphael.

: If you know that this second group of gnolls is here, they’re not terribly hard to deal with - especially when there’s a high cliff overlooking the area.

: Karlach kills one with a javelin, and after Astarion gets a sneak attack in two of the gnolls are dead before combat even really begins.

: The annoying part is that the “Fang of Yeenoghu” gnolls have a spell that stops the target from being able to take bonus actions or attacks of opportunity.

: One of the corpses they were eating has a letter on it.

Deliver the chest to me unopened.

Read the first sentence again.

Open it, and I will know, because you will be dead. This is not a threat. This is what happens if you open the chest.

NF

: This is the quest I was talking about earlier that is the source of a glitch. As it turns out, you don’t generally need it on balanced.

: The real problem is this fight up here. There’s a 5th-level gnoll warlord and a bunch of ranged gnolls attacking something in a cave. The cave has a back entrance by the toll house.

: For sake of showing off all the cutscenes, we’ll go back and take the back entrance.

: The back entrance is right down the road from the toll house, before the bridge. You can see it from the toll house.

: It has a bunch of low-tier explosive barrels, and two tripwires that release a massive boulder overhead.

: Following the back entrance brings us to the other side, where two people are throwing alchemist fires at the cave entrance.

: “Who the hells? Get over here and help!”

: “If we don’t deal with them gnolls, none of us are getting out of here alive.”

1. There’s another way out - follow me.
2. I’ll deal with the gnolls.
3. All right. Hold the line while I prepare for battle.
4. [PERSUASION] One of us is getting out of here richer - I don’t fight for free.
5. You’re on your own.

: “There’s another way out - follow me.”

: “Across the chasm? You might have got in that way, but you’re stuck with us now.”

: Rugan refuses to acknowledge the existence of the back entrance. The chasm he’s talking about is in front of him and would require Fly or some kind of teleport to get across.

: “All right. Hold the line while I prepare for battle.”

: “Thanks. Me and the boy will do what we can do help - we’ve still got some fight in us.”

: Fighting in the cave is doable, but it’s a bad idea. Why? Let me show you what happens if you were to just run up to the gnolls instead.

Narrator: With a shock of psychic pain, the pack leader’s mind clamps onto yours. You see yourself through her eyes - a pulsing red cluster of organs. FEAST! No.. the Voice has forbidden this meat.

Narrator: Gnolls see your whole world as a meal. This Voice is acting as a leash, but it won’t hold them for long.

1. Divert her attention to the cave - perhaps there’s more meat inside?
2. Search her mind for the source of the Voice.
3. Withdraw from her mind, and prepare to strike.

: Option 2’s what you want.

Narrator: A memory: the beast daubs the symbol of the Absolute on a cave wall in blood. Buried deep, a tadpole struggles to assert control against the ravenous chaos of her mind.

1. Focus on the tadpole. How did it come to be there?
2. Explore her memories, seeking a nearby target for the hunger.
3. [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] You are of the same pack - command her to devour the other gnolls.
4. Withdraw from her mind, and prepare to strike.

: If you have illithid power left, you can simply command the leader to attack the other gnolls. However..

: What kind of demon is going to see that boulder and not want to use it?

: You can see the mouth of the lower entrance to the cave on the left, and a stone outcropping on the right.

: That outcropping leads to a ledge above the gnolls outside the upper entrance.

: Now we need to get their attention. Astarion can do this by sneak-attacking the gnoll on the ledge and then booking it for the cave.

: By leaving Astarion in the cave entrance for a few turns, the gnolls have a chance to catch up. If no one’s in the entrance, the gnolls will get confused and we don’t want that.

: Once the gnoll boss steps past the rock, you can spring the trap by attacking the platform the boulder is on. It only has 2 HP.

: The warlord gets pinned under the boulder with 1 HP and her archers can’t follow her in because the cave is blocked. They get taken out from range.

: This shot was from a first attempt where I had to have Shadowheart lure the enemies in. On my second attempt (not recorded) the party took no damage.

: “By the gods, you’re a sweet sight. Are any of my crew still alive out there?”

1. No. It’s a grim sight.
2. All I saw was blood and guts.

: “No. It’s a grim sight.”

: “This whole journey’s been one grim sight after another. Gnolls, goblins… drow. Risen Road’s more dangerous than ever. You’re the first friendly face we’ve seen since Elturgard.”

1. Elturgard’s a long way from here. Where are you heading?
2. I’ll stay friendly - so long as you hand over all your goods.

: “Elturgard’s a long way from here. Where are you heading?”

: “We’re bound for Baldur’s Gate - got some cargo to deliver. But we’ve a stop to make along the way.”

1. Where’s that?
2. Maybe I should come - see you don’t get waylaid again.
3. What are you transporting?

: “Where’s that?”

: “Waukeen’s Rest. It’s just up the road. I’d be enjoying a mug of ale right now if those beasts hadn’t jumped us.”

: (An inn? I could take Halsin there..)

: “Listen. You look like you know how to handle yourself. You should meet my associates. We’ve got our own drinking spot by the tavern - invitation only.”

: “Tell the fellow at the door ‘little serpent, long shadow’. He’ll take good care of you.”

1. What’s in the chest? Your cargo?
2. [INTIMIDATION] It’s not hospitality I want - it’s coin.
3. [DETECT THOUGHTS] Read his thoughts.
4. Leave.

: “What’s in the chest? Your cargo?”

: “Trinkets for some rich tosser in Baldur’s Gate. He gets his shiny baubles, we get a handful of Tarenths.”

Narrator: Zarenths are the currency of a merchant network called the Zhentarim. Led by the mysterious Pereghost of Darkhold, their dealings are far from scrupulous.

: The Zhentarim were first introduced in 2E and have since had multiple lore overhauls - one of which was partially written by the company that would go on to make Pathfinder.

: By this point, they’ve gone from a murder cult to being essentially Fantasy Blackwater.

: All the villains with names like that are the ones who start begging for mercy after one punch.

1. You’re Zhentarim. Your people don’t deal in ‘baubles’.
2. A lot of people died for those baubles.
3. [INTIMIDATION] Whatever your cargo is, I’ll take it as payment.
4. [BARD] [DECEPTION] Darkhold was getting concerned. I’ve been sent to retrieve the shipment.
5. Leave.

: We could take the chest from them, but there’s not much of a reason to.. at least, on this difficulty.

: The only thing in the chest, if we open it, is an iron flask. I wonder what this does if we throw it?

: It spawns a spectator, which is essentially a weaker beholder. Weirdly, spectators in 3.5E were lawful neutral and not evil.

: I’m going to cut the update here in hopes of the site not eating it again, and I’ll pick up the pieces of the second half in a second update.